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Brazilian NGO network Observatório do Clima will file a lawsuit against the public bidding notices issued by the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (Dnit) last Monday (April 13), for the hiring of companies to carry out paving works on the so-called “Middle Section” of the BR-319 highway, which cuts across the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

The bid violates the Brazilian Constitution and principles of Environmental and Administrative Law, and represents a major risk to deforestation control in the Amazon.

The resumption of works on the highway was announced on March 31 by Dnit and Brazil’s Ministry of Transport. In total, the government plans to pave 339.4 kilometers of the road, between km 250.7 and km 590.1, along a stretch connecting Manaus, in the state of Amazonas, to Porto Velho, in Rondônia, cutting through one of the most well-preserved areas of the Amazon region.

However, the project does not have the required environmental license. The licensing process has been under legal challenge since January 2024, when Observatório do Clima filed a lawsuit against the preliminary license issued during Jair Bolsonaro’s administration (2019–2022).

According to Suely Araújo, public policy coordinator at Observatório do Clima, the unconstitutionality of the published bidding notices is clear, since environmental licensing in such cases is mandated by the Brazilian Constitution.

Beyond legal concerns, the project also raises human rights issues. There has been no prior, free, and informed consultation with affected Indigenous communities, as required under Convention No. 169 of the International Labour Organization, to which Brazil is a signatory.

In addition, the Brazilian environmental agency Ibama has not issued the installation license required for paving to begin, partly because Dnit has not submitted the necessary documentation for review.

Throughout the licensing process, Ibama technical staff have repeatedly expressed concern about the impacts of paving on the forest. In June 2025, Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change issued a technical note stating that deforestation in the BR-319 region could be up to four times higher than in a scenario without the project, with emissions reaching 8 billion tons of CO₂ by 2050, jeopardizing Brazil’s climate targets.

“If the project is classified by the licensing authority as having a significant impact, hence the requirement for an EIA, then Article 225, paragraph 1, item IV of the Constitution applies, and it cannot be overridden by the General Licensing Law. In other words, regardless of what is written in Article 8 of the General Law or the wishes of Dnit and regional politicians, licensing is mandatory,” said Araújo.

The project has been classified by the Ministry of the Environment as having a significant environmental impact, which is why an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and its corresponding Environmental Impact Report (Rima) were required. The need for EIA/Rima is also explicitly established in the Brazilian Constitution (Article 225, §1).

The government, however, no longer considers environmental licensing necessary. To justify this interpretation, the presidential office is invoking provisions from the new General Environmental Licensing Law that had previously been vetoed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in August 2025, vetoes that were later overturned by Brazil’s Congress.

According to Marcio Astrini, Dnit’s argument that the project constitutes maintenance and improvement of existing infrastructure does not hold. Moreover, if carried out without proper socio-environmental safeguards, as appears to be the case, the project undermines Amazon deforestation control policies.

The provision of the new law that opens this loophole is Article 8, item VII, which states that licensing is not required for projects classified as “maintenance and improvement of infrastructure in pre-existing facilities or within rights-of-way and easements, including previously paved roads and maintenance dredging.”

The construction of the BR-319 highway took place during Brazil’s military dictatorship, between 1968 and 1976. The project was never fully completed and was abandoned over the following decades.

At the time of the veto, President Lula argued that the rule now being used by the government could “exclude from the licensing process projects previously carried out irregularly, thereby ratifying illegality and environmental damage.” The move marks a shift from his earlier position, and he is expected to visit part of the stretch that will be paved.

“People in that region have the right to mobility with dignity, but the project cannot come at the cost of forest destruction. It is the government’s duty to find that balance, and that is not what we are seeing. As it stands, the highway will have massive impacts, will drive an explosion in deforestation, and will greatly benefit environmental crime,” said Astrini.